Gee don't you just feel for the poor Democrats  that can't hold their marriage together, because they can't get more from the goverment trough? NOT....geez, talk about poor excuses.....
----- Original Message -----
From: Charles
Sent: Sunday, October 05, 2003 7:57 AM
Subject: [Sndbox] (no subject)

Ballenger grouses about Muslims, lobbyist limits
Says both contributed to breakup of marriage

Observer Washington Bureau

U.S. Rep. Cass Ballenger blames the breakup of his 50-year marriage partly on the stress of living near a leading American Muslim advocacy group that he and his wife worried was so close to the U.S. Capitol that "they could blow the place up."

Another stress on their marriage: the decision by "we holier-than-thou Republicans" in the House, Ballenger said, to ban gifts -- including meals and theater tickets from lobbyists -- that once meant "a social life for (congressional) wives."

Ballenger, a Republican from Hickory, called the Council on American-Islamic Relations -- whose headquarters are across the street from his Capitol Hill home -- a "fund-raising arm" for terrorist groups and said he reported CAIR to the FBI and CIA.

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the group, which looks out for Muslims' civil rights and sponsors interfaith gatherings, said Friday that Ballenger's unsubstantiated remarks were bigoted.

The nine-term Republican made the comments during a Wednesday evening phone interview with The Observer, in which he discussed his legal separation from his wife, Donna.

It was the couple's proximity to CAIR after Sept. 11, 2001,"bugged the hell" out of his wife, he said.

"Diagonally across from my house, up goes a sign -- CAIR ... the fund-raising arm for Hezbollah," said Ballenger, 76, referring to a Lebanese militia group the United States has labeled a terrorist organization. "I reported them to the FBI and CIA."

Ballenger said in the post 9-11 environment in Washington, his wife, a homemaker, was anxious about all the activity at CAIR, including people unloading boxes and women "wearing hoods," or headscarves, going in and out of the office building on New Jersey Avenue. "That's 2 1/2 blocks from the Capitol," he added, "and they could blow it up."

"This is out-and-out bigotry," Hooper said. "It's unworthy of an elected official at the national level. ... You wonder what he's been doing in Congress if this is the kind of analysis he does: `You're a Muslim, so you're guilty.' "

This isn't the first time Ballenger has been criticized for comments some consider insensitive. Last December, in another interview with The Observer, he said that then-Rep. Cynthia McKinney, an African American from Georgia known for her abrasive style, had stirred in him "a little bit of a segregationist feeling. I mean, she was such a bitch." He later apologized for what he called "pretty stupid remarks" even as an aide was painting white the black lawn jockey -- a symbol of racial insensitivity to many -- in Ballenger's front yard.

CAIR, founded in 1994, has denied suggestions by some conservatives that it has ties to Hezbollah or Hamas or other groups linked to terrorist acts.

CAIR took out a full-page ad in The New York Times condemning the Sept. 11 attacks and sponsored an interfaith "Day of National Unity" in Washington on the anniversaries of Sept. 11.

"We meet with the FBI quite often," said Hooper. "Our chapters have town hall meetings with the FBI to discuss discrimination and hate crimes (against Muslims)." The group also prints guides for companies that want to better understand Muslim employees.

Unloading boxes is no crime, CAIR's spokesman said about Ballenger's suspicions. "Our phone works," Hooper said. "He could call if there's a problem."

When asked by The Observer what the FBI and CIA told him when he reported CAIR, Ballenger said, `They said, `Oh, we're watching them.' "

But Donna Davis Ballenger, his wife, said the FBI first told Ballenger "it was nothing," then that CAIR "was a religious group."

Otherwise, she echoed Ballenger's comments on CAIR and on her feelings about living across the street from the group's headquarters. "It's a very good location if you really wanted to raise trouble," she said.

FBI agent John Iannarelli said all reports made to the FBI -- by private citizens or members of Congress -- are kept confidential unless an arrest occurs.

"When a congressman calls, we're going to take that as seriously -- or more so -- because of his standing in the community," said Iannarelli. "Some of it turns out to be legitimate. But many times, it's speculative and it turns out that there's nothing there."

Ballenger's wife also agreed with him that the GOP-controlled House's 1995 decision to restrict the money spent on members of Congress and their spouses had helped turn Washington into "a lousy place to live. ...It used to be you'd get invitations to the symphony or the theater ... I don't think you should get $1,000 trips to the Bahamas (from lobbyists). But I don't see where a dinner or a theater ticket is that bad. We had friends who are lobbyists."

Ballenger said he and his wife got an amicable legal separation in November. "We always argued a lot," he said. "After 50 years, we decided we could get along more happily separated." They have decided not to get a divorce, he said.

In Hickory, they live apart, Donna Ballenger said, though "he eats a lot of meals here."

The couple continue to work together on the family business, Plastic Packing Inc., and on the Ballenger Foundation, where they pool their Social Security checks to furnish hospitals and schools in Latin America. They have three grown daughters.


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